Infiniti's New Steering System Is a Big Step Forward—Unless You Love Cars

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Infiniti's New Steering System Is a Big Step Forward—Unless You Love Cars

Infiniti's Q50 is the first production car to feature drive-by-wire technology.

Photo: Infiniti

Automakers are slowly foisting autonomous driving technology on us, and Infiniti is the latest to drive us ever closer to the cliff. The new Q50 is the market’s first “steer-by-wire” model, meaning there’s no mechanical connection between the wheel in your hands and the wheels on the street. Just electric signals.

As with features like lane keeping assist, adaptive cruise control, and parking assist, this further disconnects drivers from driving. Car lovers who spend their weekends yeehawing around mountain roads will howl, but most customers won’t notice the change on their own. Those who do probably won’t care.

The steer-by-wire system, which Infiniti calls Direct Adaptive Steering, comes with immediate and long-term benefits. Right now, it offers a quicker and more precise steering response, keeps vibrations from the road from annoying the driver, and improves the car’s active lane control system. Eventually, it will offer weight savings, reduce maintenance costs, and make designing autonomous cars a lot easier.

I recently spent a week with the Q50S Hybrid sedan, and my take on the steering system was, “meh.” The disconnect between my hands and the road made an afternoon drive up winding California State Route 1 less fun, but not by much (the car has 360 horsepower and is still plenty good). It made no difference the next day, when I drove through traffic to Ikea. (I could have used a bigger trunk though, the hybrid Q50 offers just nine cubic feet of storage.) I expect most drivers will feel the same.

Steer-by-wire has been the norm in aviation for decades, and Infiniti is the first to bring it to market. The system in the Q50, in development for more than 10 years, is pretty straightforward. Turning the steering wheel sends an electronic signal to the steering force actuator, which sends data to the electronic control unit, which forwards it to the steering angle actuator, which turns the wheels.

Steering response is quicker and more precise than in a mechanical setup. Electronic control makes the car’s lane control system—which steps in when the driver drifts out of his lane on the highway—more effective. The system can adjust steering through electronic instead of mechanical inputs, which requires less work.

If Infiniti ever has the guts to go for the lobotomy and strip out the mechanical steering system (it left it in there as a backup), it could cut the car’s weight and boost fuel economy. Taking out those components would also make it easier (cheaper) to produce left- and right-hand drive versions of the car, good news for a company that does business all over the world. With steer-by-wire, it’s an easy jump to systems that can be used by drivers who are paralyzed or have other handicaps.

Killing the mechanical connection between the road and the wheel allows Infiniti engineers to get rid of pesky vibrations on imperfect roads. That stinks for drivers who want to feel the road, but they’re in the tiny minority. Big car companies don’t target tiny minorities, they target the mass market.

An auto exec once told me that if car companies based decisions on what auto journalists (happily employed car nuts) wanted, they would build nothing but rear-wheel drive station wagons. Then they would go out of business.

Instead, they build cars that most people want. Cars that stay in their lanes, look out for pedestrians, and park themselves. Eventually, they will build cars that do all the work on their own. Most of the time, driving isn’t fun, it’s boring. People lust after and pay well for robots that do boring things for them.

The coming age of self-driving cars may be super depressing for some, but the benefits (a drastic reduction in traffic deaths, more time to work and relax) will surely outweigh the downsides (less fun driving, an open door to a robot takeover of the world).

Steer-by-wire is another step toward that age. Currently, it’s available only on the Q50 Hybrid and Q50 3.7 models, but an Infiniti spokesman said “there’s no doubt that this is the future and all cars will one day soon have this technology.” The timing of “soon” is up for debate, but he’ll eventually be proven right.